Saturday, October 06, 2007

Folks, to say I'm sprouting wood just thinking about today's Michigan-Eastern Michigan clash...would be a lie. This game deserves to be buried somewhere on the BTN.

The 3-2 Wolverines square off against the 2-3 Hurons politically correct Eagles, with those two EMU wins coming against Northern Illinois and Howard (not Howard the school, literally some dude named Howard from just outside Dexter). Seriously, there's no way we could lose to these guys.

Then I found out they use the spread offense.

Now I'm nervous. Because, as we all know, if Michigan played Our Lady of Crutches, and they lined up in the spread, we'd be sweating bullets well into the 4th quarter.

As such, my continuing cheap ploy of Reverse Blog Psychology (RBP) forces me to make the following prediction:

Manningham-less Michigan - 24, The School Down the Road with the Big Penis-Shaped Water Tower as their Best Known Landmark - 56

Ed. Note: Please note the 24 points I'm predicting for Michigan in no way includes the making of a FG. The 24 comes from four TDs and four missed extra points.

LOL @ J and Whetstonebuck. Yost, I am all about reverse Psychology this year......we just need to add Maizes twisted psychological assessment, then I will feel better. Come on Maize, don't let us down today!

early start to the tailgating. who knows if we'll actually make it into the stadium. Better noon game?Wisco v. Illinois

and I can't WAIT til the 8 PM matchups of tOSU v. Purdue and Florida v. LSU. oooohhhh college football baby, college football

let's hope we don't play like Louisville did last night. BLECH.

and, finally--did anyone else see Chad Henne's press conference where he admits that they approach games differently when they play "inferior teams". HIS words not mine...www.wxyz.com/mediacenter find the sports page it's in there.....

The Eagles are going to RIP the wolverines' eyes out and dine on them in HELL!!! And when they are done, they will land on the Wolverines and crap in their eye sockets. EMU's spread offense will, once again, make Michigan look like the 98 lb weakling.

Expect EMU to beat UM so badly that even PETA will come an protest over animal cruelty.

I'm happy to see it - I know they've had a good early season, I was just surprised to see them performing so well against Wisconsin. The whole conference is topsy-turvy! (At least compared to my actual time at UM.)

I hate to pile on, and I'm grateful that Lloyd has helped keep the program relatively clean... but is sure is time for him to go.

Bo has got to be rolling over in his grave right now. There's no way in hell a Bo team would ever have a player... a freaking senior no less, tell the press they prepare differently for different opponents.

And Henne, it sure looks like your club is slumming their way through this game. Nice way to exercise some senior leadership there fella.

Michigan all season hasn't looked the least bit prepared -- and now an onside kick on the kickoff -- holy cow! They haven't looked the least bit disciplined -- Bo would be losing his freaking mind at all the stupid 5 yard penalties this year.

Bo called those things entirely preventable. Bo called those things the coach's fault.

I had hope for this game when Michigan actually threw the ball on first down and on the first play of the game... everyone in the nation expects Hart to run behind Long but that's never stopped Michigan from running that play ad naseum.

It's been less than impressive ever since.

Illinois is going to destroy Michigan at this rate. Purdue's spread is going to give this team fits.

Interestingly enough, if one compares common opponents, I think Eastern could give ND a run for their money.

Its a good thing emu has an ND like run D. Our D, as predicted, is again struggling w/ the spread formation. Keep in mind emu has something like the 110th ranked offense in the country. Imagine if they had talent? Yeah, it'd be Oregon all over again.

Close to the half when EMU kicked that field goal, the crowd around me yelled, transfer him to Michigan! Then one guy said, NOW, turn his jersey inside out and walk him on! LMAO!

Special teams is horrible. I get that we had some guys playing that don't normally play....but still....there was at least 2 times that we had too many players on the field.......wtf? Facemasking on offense? Henne an interception in the Red zone? (Not only did his comments this week about preparing differently for some teams piss me off.....he also made a comment that said, it is HIS team, he is the senior and he WILL be playing......hmmmmm....sounds like an insecure jerk to me.) Ok.....I probably should have waited to post my comments, but it is fucking hot outside, I walked home stewing both physically and mentally and it just had to be said. (and I am sure that Chad is not an insecure Jerk....but Damn it, show some leadership!)

We are just bad. Special teams are bad to worse. If it weren't for Z? We'd have the worst in the country. Defense? We can't defend the spread. Doesn't matter how well they run it. Doesn't matter who runs it. We can't consistently stop it.

Offense? Still has potetntial but DeBord would have to miss the game & someone else call the plays.

Only hope is that pretty much everyone else in the conference sucks as well.

I'm a proud buckeye. Let me start by saying that. I gotta tell you folks, though, that if it was a blogger competition, we'd lose hands down. Outside elevenwarriors.com, I can't find a single Ohio State blog that isn't as boring as the sweatervest on tranquilizers. Between mochiganzone and Mgoblog, I check yours out first. Funny, well-thought out, excellent writing. Keep up the good work fellas.

I choose Bar Whetstone, liquid seems to linger longer..HA!......but I think we are safe now......I took a cold shower and a little better. I knew I should have waited to post my comments!! Sorry for the rant.....

How did Chad look in person today? On TV, all his balls were sailing, which tells me he's throwing off his back foot, which tells me either 2 things: his fundamentals need work, or his knee injury is worse than folks are letting on.

got back from the big QUIET house an hour later than normal (damn construction east of GR)...heck "key play" was louder than anything today in A2....folks, the Hurons only beat Howard and NIU this season (and check last week how the Chips crushed NIU)...I am VERY nervous for next week vs Purdue and a "real" spread team....

Mike Hart has got to be the best leader EVER in the State of Michigan since Stevie Y, hands down the best captain at UM since my high school teammate and friend, John Milligan...

I thought he was worthless. (as noted by my rant above). ......I was anxious when he threw.....as if he wasn't going to be able to be mobile (as if he is typically mobile, NOT! but I did wonder if his knee was a problem). They kept him in longer than they would have though, which tells me his knee is ok....but he hasn't gotten his game back, and they wanted him in as long as they could keep him in to get him back in it. For a senior.......well....nevermind.....Whetstonebuck might get the soap out :o)

BTW, I find it really interesting, that Sparty loved running their mouths online and on talk radio... and they kept throwing App State in our scUM faces... and Sparty goes and loses to the team that lost to DUKE. BAW WAH HA HA HA!

And hell no... to hell with Jimmy H. I can forgive but I'll never forget.

His comments were beyond bush league. What about all the players that have gone on to be doctors, and lawyers, and businessmen, and executives? What about all the players who still are active in the Michigan family, send their kids to school, help each other out when there is a crisis in the family?

Sure, are there players that slipped through the cracks -- you bet. But to hold a whole institution responsible for a failures of those with attitude problems, no drive, no work ethic, or a victimist attitude is asinine. And only someone as fucking stupid as Jimmy H. could make that stretch of deductive reasoning.

When he waited to say those comments, until after Bo died, he forfeited his Michigan Man (and Woman for T9, Katie, et al) card forever! If Jimmy really, truly, meant what he said, all he had to do was pick up the phone or poke his head into some office and talk about it. The little turd chose to use the press instead.

93,you're probably right about jimbo, but depending on who else is available? there's no such thing as a perfect coach. if you had to compromise somewhere? you could do worse than let him find a way to gracefully retract the statements on his way back to A2. at the end of the day, he's still an alum (w/ more wins over usc than lloyd).

brian kelly & UC looked good tonight.

and les myles did make some impressive calls down the stretch,but i thought the poise his whole team showed when they were behind was even better. never once looked like they didn't completely believe they were going to win.

Speaking admittedly as an OSU partisan, if at all practicable, THRASH THE F___ out of Purdue at your next meeting. Apparently getting Painter that TD pass in a 23-0 game with just minutes to play in an effort to boost his all-Big 10 credentials at season's end was more important than looking absolutely fraudulent on national television in the pettiest way. Sure, you keep playing, even if the other team has called off the dogs out of, wait for it... sportsmanship. But you DO NOT 1) call a timeout or 2) THROW from the two-yard line with less than a minute to play.

Playing against only a darkened field, Purdue's Curtis Painter threw a touchdown pass just before the lights officially shut off on the Boilers seaso... err... the Big 10 showdown against Ohio State. The Boilers soon converted the two-point conversion, shockingly, on a play-action pass--what a call by Joe Tiller! At 23-15, they lined up for the onside kick, no word yet as to whether they recovered.

T9/Katie/M93 I don't know what you guys were seeing in Chad today, but I thought he played relatively well. The first INT was obviously bad, but overall he was pretty accurate and probably would've had another TD if it weren't for Arrington's offensive pass interference call.

Also, about that press conference, Chad admitted that his team doesn't prepare as well (obvious truth), but he said that because he felt that they needed to step it up regardless of the opponent. He's not shying away and pretending the team doesn't have problems like many others seem to do...he's emphasizing it making sure they don't make the same mistakes (unfortunately that didn't happen). I don't know how "We need to pick that up and have that same emotion and intensity that we play against the bigger teams," turned into the idea that he was okay with that and that he isn't a leader, but whatev.

Apparently, when Mike Hart and the other captains are allowing their team to "slum" through a game, it's not their fault and poor leadership...but when our team slums through games, it's on Chad. I don't get it. I love his new-found fire...I love pissed off Chad who came out guns blazing vs. Northwestern and didn't even play that poorly today. It's a double standard when Mike Hart says stuff showing confidence, but when Chad does it, he's an insecure jerk (although you took it back Katie). Shit, it IS his team! He IS playing! I'm glad he believes in himself in front of everyone who wanted a 46% passer at best, which is ridiculous BTW. He's one of the best QBs and LEADERS in the nation, and I'm sick of hearing otherwise. He's never had the luxury of being the beloved Michigan QB backup like most of our other QBs in the past, and when he sees another guy get SO much credit for doing nothing exactly spectacular, I understand his frustration and I'd get pissed off and fired up too.

Both Mike, Chad, and a few others posess fire that our entire team lacks. Unfortunately, it's not contageous enough, and a lot of that I would attribute to the coaches where most of the team issues have their roots.

Dare I say I'm actually rooting for every one of Florida's opponents every Saturday -- even if Nick Saban is across the sideline. The arrogance/frustration/ego of Meyer was classic at his post game conference tonite.

I really didn't watch tOSU/PU much but I was jumping all over the couch rooting for LSU.

Katgh, I was lying in bed this morning thinking about what I said (typed). It wasn't that Chad played horribly, but my emotion for the day lingered a bit. The point I was trying to make was that I don't think his knee is worse than is being reported (which is ultimately what 93 asked) I think if his knee was worse than was being reported, they would not have kept him in as long as they did. They were up enough that they could have put Mallett in much sooner, but choose to keep Henne in. As for his leadership. Prior to the season I heard good things about him, I just felt it this week and at the game, I obviously have no idea and should be careful what I say on a public board about a college athlete. (Which has always been my stance, I was just really pissed yesterday...LOL) And T9 said nothing about Chad, and 93 did not suggest that Henne played poorly.....your comment should not be addressed to them.

As far as Les.........there is no way in hell that Martin is going to pay for him. You realize that if he wins the NC....his salary goes to 3 million......plus there is the buyout clause......after watching him last night .....My god he has balls........I was jealous. You all want a new coaching staff next season, get rid of Martin...

Urban.....what a jerk......prior to the game, the on field reporter asked him about Joiner, he said, "THAT has been taken care of"......she said, will he be playing tonight? He said "yes".....a few more questions were asked...THEN.....Urban says....."he is a grown man capable of taking care of himself"...............uh huh.....then why don't you let a grown man face the consequences of his actions???? I dislike this man to the 10th degree.

I appreciate your explanation Katie...and yesterday was HOT outside, like dehydration hot. My group of friends and I went to a bar to watch the game (I know, I know).

As for keeping him in, I noticed that he was playing with nearly ALL backups, and was confused on why he was handing off to Brown and passing to Hemmingway when we could've had Mallett work with the youngins as well. Also, most of my comment was directed at different aspects (the press conference, his leadership, etc) so I kinda lumped the address to all of you, my apologies.

i didn't think the game was so bad... i never had a panicked 'we're going to lose' feeling like some of the other games. of course, it might just have looked okay from row 86... but i was impressed that it seemed they were trying to pass a lot instead of running everything (even if it wasn't always successful... though it didn't seem too bad to me considering how many second-string players were in?)... the onside kick was a disaster, though...

okay, okay. maybe the Harbaugh suggestion was a bit of a stretch. it was late. they looked good winning, and we have sucked. consider it a sort of lonely weekend/closing time/beer goggles mistake for head coaches kinda thing. he looked good last night. i regret it this a.m.?

as to yesterday's game, it's 6 games into the season (and 6 seasons into the long slide) and we just don't look like we have a clue. we've had one game (ND) where we played like a complete team. psu was a decent performance considering the frosh qb/limited playbook, but even that's a stretch.

the other 4 games? two disaster losses/two sloppy wins against pretty mediocre teams (emu won't get 6 wins/nu will struggle for 6).

we have lousy sp teams/inconsistent offense/a D that can't stop a spread formation. we started out the season w/these problems. they have not improved. doesn't look like we're going to improve. coaching staff doesn't have any plans to do anything to improve.

we're not going to do anything different. we're just going to focus on "executing" better. yeah, that'll stop the spread- do the same thing, only better.

after 6 seasons of this same crap (i readily agree that Lloyd's first 6 seasons were good to great), i'm not sure who's nuts- Lloyd for thinking he can run the same playbook every year? or me thinking this is the year he's finally going to change?

I like Les Miles too, but let's not get too carried away. Those 5 fourth down calls would have looked a lot different if they hadn't converted. That last one they converted for a touchdown when a field goal would have tied it would have had Tiger fans calling for his @$$ if it didn't go.

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